St. John's Rick Pitino is not interested in Knicks coaching job
St. John's Red Storm head coach Rick Pitino during the Big East Tournament Final at Madison Square Garden on March 15, 2025. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
Rick Pitino has returned to the basketball sidelines with great success as the St. John’s coach, but no one should expect him to replace Tom Thibodeau and reprise his role as coach of the Knicks.
In an appearance on WFAN's midday show on Wednesday with Brandon Tierney and Sal Licata, Pitino said that while he was proud of winning a division title coaching the Knicks in 1988-89, “I can assure you that a 73-year-old is not coaching 100 games anymore” and “I would never wish myself that.”
Pitino said he was astonished that the Knicks fired Thibodeau, who took the team to four postseasons in five years, including this season's Eastern Conference Finals.
“I was actually sitting in shock when I heard,” Pitino said. “Right about 10 minutes prior to Thibs getting fired, I said to someone, ‘What is wrong with you? There's no way that Thibs is going to get fired. It shouldn't even be talked about.’ ”
He added that the Game 6 loss to the Pacers in Indiana was because of poor play, not poor coaching.
While the Red Storm coach didn’t offer up suggestions on a replacement, he did share some thoughts when the hosts threw out some names. His most interesting response came when former Villanova coach Jay Wright’s name came up.
"Jay makes a lot of sense — obviously he's got the personality [for] New York, he’s got the charisma, he makes a lot of sense, obviously, with the Villanova guys [he coached in college],” Pitino said. “But I will tell you coaching the guys in college and coaching the guys in the pros is different.
“Personally, I think Jay Wright would be a home run. Can you get him to do that? I’m not sure.”
Pitino, who was born in Manhattan and grew up on Long Island as a lifelong Knicks fan, also added that the next Knicks coach will be walking into a set of circumstances unlike one he’s ever seen for the organization.
“Who's going to go into the New York Knicks situation right now [where] anything short of the NBA Finals is going to be a disaster for this new coach?” Pitino said. “The pressure on this new coach, whoever it may be, is going to be probably the biggest amount of pressure I've seen in all my tenure rooting for the Knicks.”
Since Pitino took over at St. John’s before the 2023-24 season, the Storm has had a renaissance. They won the Big East regular-season and tournament titles this season for the first time in a quarter-century and their games at the Garden now regularly sell out. In the 10 weeks after the team lost in the second round of the NCAA Tournament — its first appearance in the Big Dance since 2019 — he has brought in the nation’s top-ranked transfer class and St. John’s is likely to begin the 2025-26 season nationally ranked in the Top 10, or even top 5.
He believes there are parallels to where the Knicks and Storm are.
“St. John’s is pretty much in the same ballgame as the New York Knicks,” Pitino said. “Right now the fans are starving. They were starving for a Big East championship. They were starving to make the tournament. We accomplished it. The New York Knicks [fan] is starving to win a championship . . . It's been a long, long time since the Knicks have won a championship.”
Asked to identify where the Knicks need to improve, Pitino said greater depth and a bench with strong defensive players would be an upgrade.
Storm forecast
The Red Storm will play three games in the Players Era Festival in Las Vegas during Thanksgiving week. The tournament hasn’t announced the pairings, dates or times, but during the radio show Pitino said, “We're playing Iowa State and Baylor and another great team out west.” Of the schedule that includes those games and non-conference contests against Alabama and Ole Miss at the Garden and Kentucky in Atlanta he added, “Can we withstand that schedule? Well, I'm the one who made it and I think we can.” . . . RJ Luis Jr., who was the 2025 Big East Player of the Year for the Storm, has entered his name for the NBA Draft and Pitino envisions him doing no worse than a two-way contract with an NBA team (similar to what Daniss Jenkins had this season with the Pistons). He envisions something similar for Kadary Richmond.
Roger Rubin returned to Newsday in 2018 to write about high schools, colleges and baseball following 20 years at the Daily News. A Baseball Hall of Fame voter since 2011, he has covered 13 MLB postseasons and 14 NCAA Final Fours.
